Thursday, June 21, 2007

Move over smallpox, we killed Guinea worm!

"Guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis — Latin for "affliction with little dragons" — is a plague so ancient that it has been found in Egyptian mummies and has been proposed by some to have been the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert. The global Dracunculiasis Eradication Program spearheaded by former President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center has now reached its final stages (see graph). This accomplishment is unprecedented — the only disease previously eradicated was smallpox, not a parasitic disease — and it has been achieved through grassroots public health initiatives involving thousands of village volunteers."

This is one of the great things science can do, and it is exciting to see it be succesful with such a formidable adversary. And who do we have to thank for it?

The Carter Center has led the effort with the help of the CDC, the WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and many other donors and nongovernmental organizations, as well as governments of the countries where guinea worms are endemic and thousands of village volunteers.

So much for all those nasty atheists that never do anything for anyone else.

About Me

I have a mathematics background, an interest in science, and an unapologetic impatience for sloppy thinking. This puts me at odds with both right and left. It's high time the rational scientific viewpoint got the rabid proponent it deserves. I fight nonsense so the scientists don't have to. The blog is not necessarily about science, but rather is a scientific view of the world. Rational, civilly expressed, factually supported thought-out opposing views are welcome. Disparaging, irrational, intentionally obtuse, troll-like whack-a-mole, quote-mining posts will be dispatched without hesitation or apology, as will tit-for-tat partisan "the other side does it too" political gamesmanship, and opinions of what topics I should be writing about. We don't do that here.